A Mother's Sacrifice
by Elvis2392
Summary: In the heat of the moment nothing else mattered. Except for Henry. She runs full throttle towards him like a mother bear defending her cubs. She knows that she will die, but her sacrifice to keep Henry alive is the only thing that is important to her.


_**Author's Note: What's up everyone?! As you can see I have a new one shot out, but I decided to do one over Once Upon a Time. FYI for Trials and Tribulations of a Prince, I know I've been taking my sweet time on that but I promise you I will have Chapter 3 uploaded to it before Halloween. These past few months have been ridiculously busy for me and I have not had much in the way of time to work on it as I would like to. But here's a one shot that came out of the blue for me. Warning: This may tug at the heart strings! **_

A Mother's Sacrifice

She gasped painfully as the dreamshade slowly worked through her body. Regina guessed that she probably had minutes to live, but she wasn't sure. Snow and Charming tended to her wound in her shoulder where the dreamshade arrow struck her.

_Flashback_

_Pan drew an arrow from his quiver that was wet from the dreamshade. All he had was one target, the one person that held the key to his plan. Henry Mills, all he needed was his heart and his wrath would soon be cast over Storybrooke. Pan let go of the arrow and watched it with sick pleasure as it zoomed in on his target. But his moment of triumph vanished when Regina's scream broke through the midst of the fighting. She managed to throw herself in between Henry and the arrow just before it hit him. It went straight through her shoulder and Regina let out a cry of pain. All at once everything was blurred and the last thing she remembered was Henry screaming out her name._

_Present_

When she came came around, Regina could tell that she was back on the Jolly Roger. She blinked a little and saw Snow and Charming were seated right next to her bed.

"What happened?" Regina asked groggily.

Snow got up to go get some towels to clean Regina's wound as much as possible. Charming looked at her and said "Pan's dead."

Regina sighed with relief, "We were lucky to make it back. But Henry's not doing so good," he added.

That got Regina's attention "Is he-?" she started to ask fearfully.

Snow sat down on the bed next to her "He's alive. But when you got hit with the arrow, he lost it," she replied as she peeled back the bandage to Regina's wound.

"What do you mean?"

Charming sighed as Snow began to clean the gash in Regina's shoulder. "Henry took one of the Lost Boys' swords and charged after Pan like some wild animal. Hook managed to get to him before Henry could," he said in a concerned manner.

Regina felt the dreamshade start to take a bigger effect on her. She grabbed Snow's wrist and said "Don't,"

Snow looked at her with great concern, Regina gasped painfully "It's no use Snow, I'll be dead by the time we reach Storybrooke,"

Snow started to say something but Regina cut her off "I don't know at how much longer I've got, but I want to have one last moment with my son," she said weakly.

Charming immediately ran up the steps to the upper deck to go get Henry. Regina turned her head to face Snow, "I know that things have been complicated with us, but I have come to realize that dwelling in the past will not solve anything."

Snow swallowed nervously as she gazed at the woman lying in bed that caused her family and friends a lot of problems. She could never forget when Regina separated her family and cast the curse that wiped out everyone's memories. But all of that anger and pain that she had because of the evil queen vanished right then and there.

"I am sorry Snow, I'm sorry for casting out that damned curse and tearing your family apart. And I don't blame you anymore for Daniel's death," Regina said sadly.

Tears spilled out of Snow's eyes and she said "Oh Regina, I am sorry this happened. And I'm sorry I killed Cora."

Regina lightly smiled and said "Well, she did kill your mother. So I guess that complicates things that much more."

Snow lightly chuckled, then the sound of footsteps interrupted them. They looked up to see Henry and Charming standing at the top of the steps looking on with great concern.

"Henry," Regina said happily.

Henry ran down the steps and came to his mother's side. Regina mustered all of her strength to sit up and she pulled him into a tight embrace. Snow knew it was time for her to leave and got up to go to the upper deck. As Snow left, Regina unlocked arms with Henry and stared at him for a long time. Tears ran down Regina's face as she scanned Henry from head to toe like he was a priceless artifact. To her surprise, Henry's eyes were flooded with tears and it wasn't long before they streamed down his face.

"Why are you crying son?" Regina asked kindly as she too was trying to keep herself together.

"This is all my fault," Henry wept bitterly.

"What do you mean?" Regina asked as she cupped his face.

"If I had gotten to Emma sooner with the book we might've had a head start in things. If I hadn't let Greg and Tamara kidnap me none of this would've happened! And now you're dying because of me!"

Henry sobbed uncontrollably and Regina wasted no time pulling him back into her arms. The last thing she ever wanted was for him to blame himself for all of this mess. Tears ran down her face and fell onto his hair. She had to make things right with Henry and the clock was ticking.

"Henry honey, look at me please," Regina said as her voice was breaking.

Henry slowly raised his head to look at her. His eyes were burning from all the crying he did. Regina wiped away his tears with her thumb. "You're wrong Henry, none of this was your fault. Don't you for one second blame yourself over me. I love you more than my own life, and I would sacrifice myself for you a thousand times if that meant you got to live to see another day. The curse was out of my own hatred, that was my doing Henry and no one else's. You helped change everything with that, I'm kind of glad that your Grandma was able to give that to you."

Regina swallowed as she continued "But there is one thing that I don't regret doing. And that's raising you Henry. You are the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. I don't know how to love very well, but I do know that I love you immensely. You were my reason to wake up and embrace the day. Raising you for those twelve years were the best years of my life. You made me feel normal and there were times where you made me forget who I was,"

Henry smiled as Regina pushed his hair back, "The one wish that I have for you Henry is to be the good man that I raised you to be. Don't become the person that I was, enjoy your time with your family. Make some new memories with Emma. I know she is your real mother, but I will always consider you as my son."

Suddenly Regina gasped sharply and she fell back onto the pillow. "Mom?" Henry asked in a frightened tone. The dreamshade was almost done, Regina looked at the one person she loved and raised with watery adoration. She took Henry's hand into hers and said "Don't be afraid son, it's time for me to go,"

Tears streamed down his face and Regina said weakly "I will always love you Henry Mills, and I will never stop loving you."

She wiped away his tears and said in a raspy voice, "Be happy for me my son,"

Then her hand came down to her side and she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. It was only then that Henry knew that Regina was dead. Only she didn't die as a villain, but as a hero. Henry leaned over and kissed her cold cheek one last time. Then he felt two hands come on his shoulders. He glanced up to see Emma looking at him with bloodshot eyes.

"She died a hero," was all she could manage to say.

"Yes she did," replied Henry.

They both looked on at Regina and silently prayed to the heavens for someone up above to have some mercy on her soul. As the night dragged on, both Henry and Emma spent the remainder of the time catching up with the rest of their family. Out of respect for their grandson, Snow and Charming decided to give Regina a private funeral once they got back home. Henry expressed his thanks to them and then decided that he was going to turn in for the night. As he headed below deck, Henry gazed at the Evil Queen's lifeless body and whispered the words that he knew that she could only hear. "Love you mom, rest in peace,"

Henry then went into the far corner of the room and climbed into the cot to get some rest. As his thoughts whirled in his head, Henry then allowed the darkness to overcome him and he succumbed to the sleep he so desperately needed.

_**I had to get this out before season 4 started. I know that things didn't turn out the way we thought they were going to in season 3. But this was one of the predictions that I had like for the halfway point in last season. Nevertheless I thought season 3 was great! Can't wait to see Elsa and the rest of the Frozen gang make their first appearance. Hope you liked this! Pls review but be nice about it. This was my first fanfic for OUAT. **_


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